


After the Afterlife

by Morpheus626



Category: Kingsman (Movies)
Genre: F/F, Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-03
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:15:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25045999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morpheus626/pseuds/Morpheus626
Summary: I’ve got a few post-Golden Circle AU fics in the works, this is one of them (aka no one has died, everyone is fine, everything is fine and we met the Statesman group because…I’ll cross that bridge later when I do my full rewrite of Golden Circle like I’ve been wanting.)I also redid this so it would fit in the Dancer AU specifically, because I’m having fun playing in that space lol. I do bring in an OC from that fic, and some stuff that happens at the end of that fic as a result of well… all of it lol so I would def recommend giving it a read before this one!Didn’t intend on this also being a mulit-chapter thing, but here we are. Title comes from the CocoRosie song of the same title.I’ve been rewatching Buzzfeed Unsolved and the Insidious movies, and then rewatched Kingsman so now…this. Have at it lol.
Relationships: Gary "Eggsy" Unwin/Original Male Character(s), Harry Hart | Galahad/Merlin, Roxy Morton | Lancelot/Tilde
Kudos: 4





	1. 1

“I’m not going on a fucking ghost hunt. This isn’t spywork, this is…” Eggsy shook the spirit box he’d been handed. “Shit.” 

“I take it you don’t believe?” Roxy asked as she slipped the last of her guns into an ankle holster, so small it was hard to believe it would be of much use, against a living enemy or a ghost. 

“Look, all I’m saying is, regardless of whether any of this is real, this is not what Kingsman does. Unless there’s some secret Scooby-Doo divison you’ve all kept hidden.” 

“We’re doing this for Tilde,” Roxy scolded gently. “Try and take it seriously.” 

“I am,” Eggsy muttered defensively. “I’m just saying, when I was here with her? Never heard a peep, or saw anything out of the ordinary. I’m not saying she isn’t seeing things, just-” 

Roxy sighed. “I know. I haven’t…I mean, I think I can explain away what I’ve seen here with her. I think.” 

“You think?” 

“We owe it to her to do this thoroughly, even if we aren’t sure about it,” Roxy said. “If nothing else, do it for me. I love her, but I have a sleep schedule to maintain, and she needs to keep to one as well. Waking up every night to go searching for sounds, shadows…we can’t keep doing it.” 

“You’re right,” Eggsy sighed, and slipped the last of the various ghost-hunting tools Merlin had acquired for them into their bag. It wasn’t much, so it was light packing for once. Not to mention, Tilde had made sure their usual rooms, complete with extra clothes and other necessities, were laid out and ready for them for the duration of the investigation. 

Which was kind of her, but it made it no easier to immediately walk into a darkened and empty palace after hopping off the Kingsman private plane. Had it been for a group movie night, or literally anything else, he might have found some enthusiasm. 

But this just felt strange. 

“Is it cold in here?” Roxy asked as their footsteps echoed down the main hall. 

“Well, it is December in Sweden, in a palace that isn’t used every day for actual living or much other than diplomatic meetings and our movie nights in the guest apartments, so I can’t imagine they turned the heat on for us,” Eggsy replied. 

“Tilde said they would be.” 

Eggsy shrugged and shifted their gear bag on his shoulder. “Maybe they forgot?” 

Roxy shook her head and pulled out her phone to use as a flashlight. 

“The lights are just-” 

“No!” Roxy’s eyes were wide.

“Why not?” 

“Well,” Roxy murmured awkwardly. “It’s a ghost hunt. The lights are usually off.” 

“Will we scare the ghosts off if we turn on a few lights?” 

“Eggsy!” 

“I’m asking honestly!” Eggsy said. “I mean, is there a logical reason we can’t turn on the lights? If light is a problem, then shouldn’t we also avoid flashlights, or candles, or-” 

“Eggsy,” Roxy said again, this time with a frown. 

“Okay, no lights. Just flashlights?” 

She nodded, and gestured for the bag. 

They split up the tools as best they could, with whatever could be easily carried. A set of dowsing rods for each of them, the spirit box to Roxy, and-

“A pendulum, and a Ouija board?” Eggsy scoffed. “Really?” 

“There’s instructions for each, but I say we leave the board here for now. It’ll be a pain to try and carry with, but you can wear the pendulum on that chain.” 

“Oh, I can? Me?” 

“Is there any other Kingsman agent here I could be talking to?” Roxy smirked, and moved behind him, pendulum in hand, to put the necklace on him. 

A mirror in the hall crashed to the floor, and they both jumped. 

“Hope that wasn’t particularly old,” Eggsy winced. “Lots of antiques, relics, whatnot in here.” 

“Why did it fall?” Roxy asked, pushing the pendulum into his hand and rushing over to it. “There’s no reason this should have gone down, it was hanging just fine…” 

She turned about the room slowly, looking for something that wasn’t there, as far as he figured, while he put on the pendulum, making sure the necklace clasp was secure. Even if he wasn’t thrilled to use it, he wasn’t about to go losing mission supplies. 

“Is there someone here? Someone who was trying to answer me?” 

“You think it’s another Kingsman agent?” Eggsy asked. “Who would that be?” 

The shards of the mirror shook on the floor, and Roxy pointed to them. “See? How do you explain that?” 

“…well. The floor-” 

“Yes?” Roxy interrupted, and cocked her head. “The magical vibrating floor?” 

“I wasn’t going to say that,” Eggsy smirked. He had been, but he couldn’t say it now. “Maybe the glass is…off balance.” 

“How?” 

“Floors are old,” Eggsy replied. “Maybe uneven?” 

Roxy rolled her eyes. “Sure, we’ll say that for now, if it makes you happy.” 

“Oh it does, just fills my heart with happiness,” Eggsy joked, and laughed as Roxy came back over to give him a soft jab in the side. “What? It does.” 

“Let’s just see what else we find, hm? See if you can use uneven floors to explain everything.” 

He shrugged, and took one of the flashlights she pulled from the bag, then followed as she led down the left hall, away from the wing containing the museum of antiquities. 

“Are there any rooms in particular she wants checked? When we were here together, she always mentioned the guest apartments in general, but…” 

“That’s the main area,” Roxy replied. “Since it’s where we also spend most of our time here. But to be truly thorough, we need to check as much of the palace as possible.” 

“How long are we expecting to be out here, anyway?” 

Roxy shrugged. “As long as we need to. I gave Merlin the estimate of a week, maybe more.” 

“You’re dead serious about this, aren’t you?” Eggsy asked. “What have you seen here?” 

Roxy wouldn’t look at him, and gestured further down the hall. “Come on. We need to keep moving.” 

“Roxy.” 

“Keep up,” she said, and trotted down the hall. 

“There’s no need to run,” Eggsy called as he jogged to keep up. 

Then, she was gone.

“What in the fuck?” He turned around, to see if she’d somehow sneaked behind him without his noticing, but there was nothing.

No Roxy, no hall. Just darkness. 

“This isn’t funny,” he called out into the darkness, and kept on in what seemed like forward. “I get it. You’ve arranged a little something to scare me, so I take the rest of this more seriously. Look, I’m sorry, I was being an asshole, I admit that, but I don’t want to run into something expensi-” 

He smacked into something that felt like glass. Another mirror, obviously, likely old and not easily replaced. 

“See? That’s what I meant; I could have broken that!” 

He turned to go back, but hit what felt like another pane of glass.

Turn. Glass.

Turn. Glass. 

Around and around until he was dizzy, but it was like he’d been locked in a glass box. His flashlight did nothing to penetrate the darkness. 

“Let me out, Roxy! I don’t know what this is, but, come on! It isn’t funny, this is a mission, and you can’t fuck with it like this!” 

He bashed a fist against one side of the apparent box, and heard a crack. Over and over, until his hand ached, and finally the glass sounded as if it had fully shattered. 

He tried to use the flashlight to keep an eye out for the pieces, but it didn’t seem possible, and how could the light just not do anything in the dark? 

He topped down onto a floor, face-first, and swung around on his back with his flashlight bobbing, finally making some headway in the dark. 

He was in one of the guest apartments, on the floor, in front of a shattered mirror still on the wall. 

He kept his light trained on the glass fragments. “Roxy?” 

No response. 

“Roxy, please. I’ll take this seriously, I promise.” 

_Will you?_

A voice, definitely not Roxy’s, deeper and masculine, sounding like…well, like someone it could not be. 

He scrambled off the floor, and opened the door of the room, praying Roxy would be outside. 

But the hallway was empty. 

“Okay,” he mumbled aloud as he started back down the hall, on the long walk to the main hall area. “This is a joke. They probably thought it would be silly fun. And it is. I’m not hurt, just fine. This is fine.” 

His own pep talk didn’t stop him from stopping just briefly to text Ainsley. 

**Know you aren’t on this so not supposed to share intel, but…WTF**

The typing bubble immediately came up, then Ainsley’s response. 

**Are you okay? Is Roxy okay?**

He typed like the wind, trying to ignore the feeling that the darkness was once again encroaching on him, taking him over like a cloud covering the sun.

**I don’t know. Can’t find her. Things are feeling very weird. Kind of scared :(**

He slipped his phone back into his pocket, and charged down the hall, away from the storm cloud of shadows on his tail. 

“Roxy! Please answer! I’m very sorry about what I said before, I promise!” 

Only silence answered him as he kept on, his dress shoes tapping down the polished floor as he ran faster, as fast as he could. 

Then, a light. 

“Roxy! We need to stay together, we have-” 

Whoever it was, it wasn’t Roxy. He couldn’t make out a face, but they were too tall, though they wore a Kingsman-styled suit. 

“Who are you?” fell from his mouth before he could stop it, and the light disappeared. 

“No, please come back,” he tried again, chasing after what he thought might be the person, impossible to make out as the shadowy cloud covered him again, and his flashlight was rendered useless. “Stop!” 

_I want you to know how it feels._

That same voice, so familiar it hurt though he hadn’t heard it in years.

“Dad?” 

“Eggsy?” Roxy’s light, somehow shining through, as if the cloud was just gone. “What’s wrong?” 

“I…it was him. I don’t know how, and it shouldn’t be, because there should be nothing here. A-and if there would be, it would be…old Swedish politicians, or something!” 

“Okay,” she murmured, a hand gentle on his shoulder. “What happened?” 

“I don’t know. I just know I heard him,” Eggsy muttered miserably. “But how…” 

“Is there anything you would have left here, after you moved out, that would tie him here?” Roxy asked softly.

“I don’t know, I didn’t know he was here to begin with! I never heard his voice, until now,” Eggsy replied. “If this is some joke, by you and Tilde-” 

“Eggsy!” 

“I’m just saying,” he said, and gasped for breath, the tears falling faster and harder than he could try and stop them. “If it is…I love you both, but this needs to stop. This is a low blow.” 

“I swear to you. On my life, on my honor as an agent,” Roxy replied. “We wouldn’t do that to you, ever. Nor would we let anyone else do such a thing.” 

He nodded. “Okay. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t…that was wrong of me, to assume, but I just can’t believe-” 

She interrupted him with a hug, careful not to poke him with any of the equipment in her hands. “It’s okay. That would scare me too, what you’re talking about. I wouldn’t want to believe it was real either.” 

“But I thought you-” 

“I know what I’ve seen,” Roxy interrupted as she let him go. “But at the same time, it would have been so much easier if it was nothing at all. Just…Tilde and I having overactive imaginations. But clearly, that isn’t the case.” 

“What now?” 

She sighed softly. “We deal with it. We try and communicate, find out if it really is your father. Find out what he needs from us to help him move on.” 

“He said he wanted me to know how it feels,” Eggsy said. “I don’t know what he means though.” 

“Maybe we should take a break,” Roxy said. “Have some of the food in the fridge; Tilde said they made our favorites to tide us over while we’re here. Could sleep for a few hours, see how it feels after that or if we get any other activity.” 

“It isn’t just because I’m hungry or tired,” Eggsy said. “I thought you believed in all this?” 

“I do,” Roxy protested. “But, all the same, we need to have some logic present. And we’re both tired, and could use at least a small snack, yes? That will help ensure we’re actually getting results, and not just…hearing things, or seeing them, I guess.” 

“You believe me though, right?” 

“Of course,” Roxy replied. “Now, come on. To the kitchen we go.” 

The food was good, an assortment of sandwiches to choose from just for the first night, but he couldn’t bring himself to eat more than a few bites. 

He didn’t want to admit that, over the years, his father’s voice had faded some from his memory. But here? Tonight? It had been as clear as if it had never faded at all. 

As if he was alive. 

They camped out in one of the guest apartments, sharing a bed out of convenience, and because the thought of sleeping alone made him nervous as all hell. 

“Rest,” Roxy commanded sleepily as she yanked the covers closer to her. “You’re safe here, Eggsy. You know that. Even if it is real…it’s your dad. He’d never want to scare you.” 

The urge to cuddle as close to Roxy as possible was hard to resist, but he did. Roxy ran warm, and had complained before that both him and Tilde had a habit of clinging onto whoever was near them during a nap, making poor Roxy unbearably hot. 

That left him holding onto the bedsheet like a child, even as he berated himself for it while he listened to Roxy snore softly. “This is ridiculous! I am a grown man, and this is just…a very weird mission. That’s all.” 

He pulled his phone off of the bedside table out of desperation and slipped out of the bed. It was late, or rather, very early in the morning, and Ainsley should be asleep by now. But maybe, just maybe…

“Hello?” Ainsley sounded half-asleep.

“Hi,” Eggsy whispered, “Can’t talk too loudly, Roxy’s asleep.” 

“Okay,” Ainsley yawned. “Mission going well now?” 

He paused, pondering how to describe it.

“Still weird and scary?” Ainsley answered as he asked. 

“Yeah. I didn’t think it would be like this, at all. And now…I don’t know what to do. Stuff like this has never scared me before, but I’ve never had it be real before! Horror movies make it seem, well, not easy I guess,” Eggsy muttered. “But I figured I could deal with it, if I ever somehow had to.” 

“And now it isn’t so easy?” 

“Not at all. But…it’s my dad,” his voice broke before he could stop it. “That’s who I heard. He’s here, apparently. But I don’t know why. He didn’t die in Sweden, we’ve never lived here except for me living here with Tilde-” 

He tossed up an arm in frustration. “So why is he here?” 

“Going on the idea that this is all very much real, because you know I do want to believe you,” Ainsley began. “Is there a chance you left something there that would tie him to the place?” 

“You sound like Roxy,” Eggsy shook his head. “I don’t know? The only thing I can think of that got lost in my move was my Kingsman pendant. But it isn’t like I’ll need to call in that favor again, since I am Kingsman now.” 

“So you said no big deal and didn’t look for it, or ask Tilde or Roxy to look for it?” 

“Ains, it could be anywhere. At our actual residence more likely, we didn’t live here. Just visited every now and again, used the guest apartments for movie nights and things. Hell, maybe it fell out on the street,” Eggsy replied. “There’s no way to know.” 

“Do remember the last room you and Tilde used, the last time you were there together?” 

“I think so? You really think I should go look for it?” 

“Your dad was in the running to be a Kingsman agent, right? Why wouldn’t he tie himself to an item like that?” Ainsley asked. 

“Harry did bring it to me and mum after he died…” 

“There you go,” Ainsley yawned again. 

“I’m sorry. You should be asleep,” Eggsy said. “I’ll let you go.” 

“It’s fine, I was dozing in front of the TV. Thinking about you,” Ainsley said, and Eggsy could hear the smile on his face. 

“Worried about me?” 

“After your texts? A bit,” Ainsley replied. “You know you can call me or text me whenever you need during all this, especially with this new development. Don’t let yourself have a heart attack over being scared, just call me instead. We’ll talk together until it feels less scary, alright?” 

Eggsy nodded. “Thank you, love.” 

“You’re welcome. Now, are you going to try and sleep?” 

“I think so.” 

“Good,” Ainsley said. “Sleep well, and call or text me tomorrow to check in. And don’t forget to check that room for the pendant. Just in case.” 

“Just in case,” Eggsy repeated. “I will. Love you.” 

“I love you too. Get some rest.” 

His heart still beat fast, but he was able to close his eyes as he set the phone back down on the table and slipped into the bed. It might be a restless sleep, but at least it would be something.


	2. 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: I have managed to scare myself at least three times while writing this, specifically because I chose the few things out of actual horror movies/stories that scare me thinking that would be the best option somehow, and despite it disrupting my sleep, I do not plan to stop doing that! 
> 
> After all, if I can scare myself, I can scare others, right? 
> 
> Eggsy is scared, that much I know for sure. Poor thing can’t catch a break, and it isn’t over yet either. 
> 
> But he’s got this. 
> 
> Probably. 
> 
> We’ll find out. 
> 
> Anyway! This is a shorter chapter, so he’ll be fine probably. Nothing too bad can happen in a short chapter, I always say.

He woke to an empty bedroom. Light shone in through the bedroom window, and he stumbled out to the hall, phone in his hand, to look for Roxy.

“Breakfast?” he called, anticipating something of a response about whatever she’d chosen from the frankly too vast amount of food in the fridge. They had prepared as though they’d be there for three months, not a week.

Nothing.

He checked the nearest bathroom, but it was empty, as were the others on that wing.

“Roxy?” he called out into the kitchen, but was met with nothing.

He made his own morning routine quick, showering and cleaning up and dressing as fast as he could so he could check for her outside.

But the doors wouldn’t open. Not the front doors, or any of the others to the outside.

“Okay,” he called out to the apparently empty halls. “Dad? What’s this about? Why can’t I find Roxy, or go outside? If this is your doing-”

The sudden darkening of the hall interrupted him, leaving him in the dark without anything to try and cut through it aside from his phone flashlight.

As predicted, like the night before, it did nothing to the shadows around him, as if they were made of something thicker than regular darkness.

“Please stop,” he tried, hating how desperate and scared he sounded. “Why can’t you just tell me what you need? Is it the pendant, is that it?”

A crash, down the hall, towards the room he’d remembered last using with Tilde.

“Ains and Roxy are never going to let me forget they were right about this,” he muttered, half to his father and half to himself. “Can you at least let me see a little, so I can get there?”

A small beam of light appeared in front of him, and led him slowly down the hall to the room.

He combed the room as if he was searching for something life-saving, scrabbling underneath each piece of furniture, until-

“Ha!”

The pendant was a bit dusty, but otherwise no worse for the wear, still on its chain.

“I found it!” Eggsy held it up to the shadows. “So this is over now, yes?”

_You still don’t get it._

His father’s voice, angry.

“What don’t I get? Talk to me!” Eggsy shouted as he put on the pendant. “You can’t just expect me to read your mind!”

_I didn’t raise you this way._

“You weren’t there!” Eggsy rebutted. “You were dead, and it was just me and Mum! And she-”

_You could have stopped her._

“From what? Remarrying? Having Daisy?” Eggsy spat. “Look, I-Dean is horrible. But what was I supposed to do? I was a kid. And Daisy…she’s the good that came from all that. I wouldn’t give her back for anything; I’m lucky to have her as a sister. You would have me erase someone as good and sweet as her just to get rid of the bad that happened to be a part of it all? As if I even could.”

_Dying wasn’t my fault._

“I fucking know that!” Eggsy shouted, loud enough he figured Roxy had to somehow hear him, despite the shadows clouding him, so heavy that he couldn’t make out the room around him. “But you can’t put it back on me, that I was supposed to somehow stop Mum from making her own choices in relationships and men? Do you know how mad that sounds?”

The shadows slammed him against the wall, or where he figured the wall must be, and he winced.

“Why are you doing this? Are you that angry over it all? She isn’t even with him anymore, it’s just her and Daisy now, on their own.”

_YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND!_

The tears were flowing again, and he didn’t even try to stop them. Perhaps his father hadn’t seen the ones he’d shed as a child, missing him as desperately as he had. As he did.”No, I don’t! Because you won’t look beyond yourself in this. Did you expect her to never change, to not try and adapt to losing you? I’m not saying Dean was a good choice, I’d never say that, but you’ve got to give her a break.”

_Harry told you to take care of her!_

“I was a child!” Eggsy tried to wipe some of the tears away, as they obscured his vision even more than the shadows. “I was scared, and lonely, and missed you, and hated how sad Mum was, and hated how I couldn’t do anything to make it better. I tried to do something that would make you proud, I was going to join the Royal Marines. And maybe I didn’t stick with that, but that was for Mum’s sake, and now I’m here! I’m in Kingsman, doesn’t that mean anything?”

His father’s face was in his, but it was disturbing to see. As if he was looking into the grave, seeing the missing flesh, the rot. It was his father, but not the same kind face that had been there for him when he was young.

_You need to know what it was like. To sit and watch it happen, and not be able to do a damn thing. You’ll know now._

“The hell do you mean by that?” Eggsy asked, slumping to the floor as his father backed away from him. “Oi, what the fuck does that mean?!”

His father only shook his head, and continued to walk away from him, until he disappeared.

He stood, and wiped away more tears as he tried to walk forward.

Glass.

“No, no, no, not this again,” he moaned. “I can’t, I can’t handle this, let me out.”

He tried every possible direction he could move in, but he could only take a step or two forward before hitting what felt like glass.

“Roxy!” he screamed so hard it hurt. “Come help me! I don’t…I don’t know how, just figure something out please!”

He could hear the irritating whine and crackle of the spirit box then, and he would have leapt for joy if there’d been room.

“Roxy! Can you hear me through that?”

“Eggsy?”

Her voice was like sunshine, bright even though it sounded so horribly far away.

“Yes! Roxy, he’s got me trapped somewhere, somehow. I don’t know in what, or where-”

“This is a mirror,” Roxy’s voice came again, slightly fainter this time. “How are you in a mirror?”

“If I knew that, don’t you think I’d be out by now?” he yelled, then winced. “Sorry, I”m sorry. That isn’t fair, I’m just-I’m scared, Roxy. Please, get me out.”

“I-I know mirrors can capture spirits after death,” Roxy said. “But you aren’t-”

The sound of her footsteps, going away, and he couldn’t stop himself from screaming again.

“Roxy! No, where are you going?! Come back!”

_You’ll get it back when you’re ready for it._

“Fuck you,” he spat, and didn’t regret it like he wanted to, like he felt he should in speaking to his father. “You’ve got my body sitting somewhere, haven’t you?”

_It’s safe. Like I said, once you understand, and have spent your time here…then you’ll get to go back. Once I’ve taught you better, how Harry and your mother should have taught you._

“I want to go back now!” Eggsy shouted. “I have a mission to complete, so I can let Tilde know never to come here again, and warn her family the damn palace needs an exorcism! I have Ainsley-”

_Who?_

“My boyfriend,” Eggsy continued, frowning at the interruption. “You’ve been around to see me, but you just stopped checking after I moved, all because the damn pendant was here and not with me?”

_I will find him._

“No you fucking will not!” Eggsy spat. His eyes and sinuses ached from the crying, but he couldn’t seem to stop. “Leave him alone, you hear me? You shouldn’t be able to go to him anyway, I have the pendant on! Ah, you didn’t think of that, did you?”

_I have ways._

“Shut the fuck up,” Eggsy muttered, and sat on what felt like the floor. “Don’t you love me, anymore? The dad I knew would never do anything like this to me, or to anyone.”

_Death can change a person. You’ll see._

Then silence.


	3. 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eggsy and his father start to work some things out, or at least attempt to. As John Mulaney says “None of us really know our fathers. Anyway…” 
> 
> We finally get to see what everyone else is up to as well, while Eggsy whiles away his time in whatever you want to call where he’s being held (as the author I know I am supposed to have given it a name. I haven’t come up with one yet though so…shhhh. Our secret. I’ll get to it, eventually.)

He would have killed for some sound. Any sound, anything at all. Even the shrillness of a fire alarm, the wail of an emergency vehicle. Anything, to break the silence, so deep and unsettling. 

There was no sign of Roxy returning. No word from his father. Just the shadows. 

His eyes were somewhat used to it, though as a shadow would swirl, he found himself looking for a shape in it, half of him fearful over what he might see. 

The other half, however, just wanted to see something, someone. Anyone. 

He had tried his phone a few times, but apparently wherever he was had no cell reception, because the screen remained dead and dark no matter what he did. 

No way to contact Ainsley, or Roxy, or anyone else with Kingsman. He couldn’t even play music off of it to break the wall of…just nothing. No ambient noise, just nothing at all. It was driving him mad. 

“Dad?” 

No response. 

“Fine. You don’t have to talk back to me now, if you don’t want to. Not like I could make you, even if I wanted to. But I hope you can hear me, and you’re listening.” 

He had taken the pendant off, playing with it in his hands like a coin, letting the chain it was on flow and drop between his fingers. 

“I’m trying to understand. I am. You didn’t expect to die, when you did. I’m sure you knew it was a possibility, you’d have been a fool not to, but all the same…I mean, I know I might die on these missions. Well, maybe not this one, I didn’t expect that, but that just goes to show you, doesn’t it?” 

He sighed, and looked around the swirling shadows. Nothing. No one. 

“Anyway. Even so, I try and keep positive. Yes, I could die, but I always plan to come back in one piece. I’m sure you did the same. Then to suddenly…not be. To be gone. That must have been a shock. I’m sorry for that. I couldn’t have done anything to prevent it, no one could have-” 

_Harry._

He bit his tongue at his father’s interruption. “It was a mistake. Anyone could have made it. Just happened to be Harry.” 

_That’s convenient._

Eggsy scoffed. “He was your mentor, your sponsor for Kingsman. You really think he’d have gone to all the trouble to recommend you and get you in training only to kill you? Listen to yourself, for fuck’s sake.” 

_You don’t know everything._

“No shit, but neither do you,” Eggsy spat. 

_No. He’s never told you-_

“Told me what? That you were apparently an enormous ass and prick who likes arguing and looking to assign blame, rather than accepting an unchangeable situation for what it is?” Eggsy interrupted. “I told you, I am trying to understand. But you have to meet me halfway, and understand…I can’t bring you back. Nothing can. I can’t change what choices Mum made. Harry can’t go back and change what he did, though I can tell you that if he could, he would in a heartbeat, to have you back. He’s never forgiven himself for what happened. He barely talks about it, and when I do dare to ask him about it, the way his face contorts…” 

Eggsy shook his head. “If you don’t know by now how sorry he is for what happened, then you haven’t been listening to him. I know he’s asked, begged, your forgiveness, all the while feeling he isn’t worthy of it.” 

_He isn’t._

Eggsy stood, and faced the direction he hoped his father might be standing in. That was what his presence felt like it was doing now, at least. 

“He isn’t? How can you make that decision anyway? Couldn’t you have helped check the target as you all tied him down? I know that Harry played his part in it, that he should have been first to check, but if you were really getting anything out of the training, you would have known to check again yourself!” 

He could hear just a gasp from his father, but he was done being interrupted. 

“I mean, Mum always talked about applying yourself, and making sure you weren’t cannon fodder for snobs, but you? Did you pay attention, did you learn anything out of all the testing they do to teach us how to not become cannon fodder for anyone? Even for a mission like this, where I honestly thought all I’d be doing is talking to Roxy about random bullshit while sitting in a dark hallway, I double-checked everything! Every bit of equipment, every map of the palace; hell, we barely had to bring anything with us, and I still made a checklist!” 

Silence.

“Just in case, because you never know with a Kingsman mission. So you cover your ass, and the ass of anyone working with you, because that’s your family.” 

His voice cracked, but he shook it off as best he could. “And you don’t want anything to happen to them, or to you. So you take as much care as you can, and then more, to make sure everyone makes it home. You can’t control all of it, but what you can…” 

He sat again, and let the tears fall. As they hit the shadows below him, smoke wisps fluttered up towards his face. “Maybe part of it is you, did you ever think of that? I can’t understand your perspective on this, because you can’t understand mine. And you never would, because even if you hadn’t died…maybe you weren’t Kingsman material, and it’s as simple as that.” 

The light that flashed then was blinding, and he could feel it, rage, hot and heavy and violent. He couldn’t see his father, but he could feel him there, in his face, just on the edge of something. 

“Don’t do something else you’ll regret. Because I promise you, you’ll regret this. I’ll never be able to think of you the same way. You’ll be my father in role but…” 

He shrugged. “That’s it. When people ask about you, it won’t be ‘my father who died a hero in a military sort of operation gone wrong’ it’ll be ‘he died.’ Because you didn’t die a hero, you died as result of a foolish mistake that frankly is just as much your fault as it is Harry’s. So they don’t need to know anything else about you, and I’ll be happy not to tell them anything else. I don’t even want to think about you ever again, after this.” 

_You wouldn’t say that if you knew everything._

“You know, you keep saying shit like that, yet you don’t actually tell me anything,” Eggsy scoffed. “Maybe, just a thought, try actually telling me what it is you’re on about! And then we can see what I say.” 

_What if I told you your mother knew Harry before my death?_

Eggsy shrugged. “Okay, so what? You all knew each other in some capacity. Not really shocking a revelation, and one I’d already figured, even if Mum and Harry won’t talk about that part of their lives. Try again.” 

Before his father could reply, a bit of light flashed again in the shadow, and a vision flickered into view, not unlike looking at the screen of a security monitor. 

“Ainsley?” Eggsy asked softly, reaching a hand out towards it, but he couldn’t seem to hear him. 

They were in a hospital room, Ainsley, Roxy, Harry, his mum and Daisy…and himself. 

In the bed, with wires and tubes seemingly on every bit of him there could be one. 

“I’m so sorry,” Roxy told Ainsley, and Eggsy watched her take his hand as Harry led his mum and Daisy out of the room. “Had I anticipated this…we would have brought you with, and Tequila. Maybe Harry as well. Or at least prepared you all as back up.” 

“You couldn’t have known,” Ainsley said, but his eyes were red and puffy. “Thank you, at least, for this.” 

He toyed with the ring on his left ring finger, and Eggsy couldn’t bite back his gasp.

“How did you find that? I was supposed to give that to you properly,” he said miserably. “I had it all planned…” 

“Of course,” Roxy replied. “I think he’d want you to have it now, because I think, maybe-” 

“We can reach him with this,” Ainsley interrupted. “Or he can at least reach out to us.” 

Roxy nodded. “Whenever you’re ready, we can go back to the palace together. To try…Tilde has ensured it remains closed until this is over. So if you need time, we can wait.” 

“But can his body?” Ainsley asked, and gestured to the mass of wires and tubes. “I mean, how long was he alone there, on the floor, already in this coma, and nearly dead to boot…I don’t think we have as much time as we might want.” 

Roxy sighed. “I think you’re right. Just didn’t want to rush you.” 

“The longer I put this off, the longer he’s like this, and the more it’ll hurt. We can’t wait. Tomorrow,” Ainsley said. “I can be ready by then.” 

“Very well. I think the rest of the boys are ready as well. Harry would have gone out on his own, I think, had we not stopped him.” 

Ainsley nodded. “I can’t blame him. This is something entirely outside of any of our wheelhouses, and knowing how close they’ve been…only makes sense he’d want to charge in.” 

He could feel his father glowering then. “What? He’s worried about me, shouldn’t that make you happy? He’s trying to make up for it, you know. For you being gone. It’s kind of him.” 

He watched Roxy and Ainsley leave the hospital room, feeling for all the world like he was watching a movie of his own life, as he followed them to the car park, then with Ainsley into a cab, then back to their home, to watch him pack for the mission. 

“Can he hear me?” he asked his father. “I mean, if he can’t right now, is there a way I can make him hear me?” 

Sullen silence.

“Fine. I’ll figure it out on my own. Until Harry and Kingsman, that’s what I had to do anyway,” Eggsy spat. “Just like riding a bike.” 

“Ainsley! I’m here! Give me a sign you can hear me!” 

Nothing, not so much as a shiver from Ainsley. Shouting wasn’t it then. 

He crawled as close to the image as he could, so close his lips touched the oddly soft and smoke-like edges of it. 

“Ainsley?” 

Ainsley jumped, dropping the suit pants in his hand. “Eggsy?” 

He sat back for a moment, in pure elation, a hand over his mouth as he grinned, then popped back up close to the image. “Ains, can you hear me well?” 

“Kind of? It sounds like you’re in a tunnel,” Ainsley replied. “Is it…the ring, is that it?” 

“I think so,” Eggsy said. “You have no idea how good it is to hear you again, to see you. God, I was losing my fucking mind in here.” 

“In here? So, it is the mirror then, like Roxy thinks?” 

“I don’t know for sure,” Eggsy admitted. “I can’t see where I am. I just know Roxy mentioned being near a mirror when she could hear me, and if I try and move any from the spot I’m in now, it feels like I hit glass.” 

“This is so fucking weird,” Ainsley shook his head. “But I’m so glad I can hear you, all the same. I’d rather you were back completely, of course. I’m not letting you leave this house for a month, once you are.” 

“Not even for Kingsman?” Eggsy giggled. 

“I’ll go with you, and they can send us both on any missions they need you for. I miss you,” Ainsley replied, and Eggsy could hear the desperation in his voice. 

“I miss you too. I’d give anything to be able to touch you, to hold your hand, something,” Eggsy said. He reached again for the image, letting his fingers and hand disrupt the smoky image, ignoring the intense cold that took over his skin as he did so. 

And there it was. Ainsley’s hand.

“Is that-” 

“Yeah,” Eggsy laughed shakily, reveling in the sensation of his boyfriend’s hand holding his, something so simple that was monumental now. 

“Oh my god,” Ainsley said weakly, and sat on the bed, his fingers still curled around what, to the average observer, would seem like empty air. “Can you get back to your body this way, do you think?” 

“I don’t know,” Eggsy said. “If you go back to the hospital, I could try.” 

It was like he’d lit a fuse, Ainsley’s hand out of his and him off like a rocket, snagging a jacket and his wallet, not even bothering with a cab as he raced out of their house and down the sidewalk. 

“You can’t run the whole way there!” 

“Who’s going to stop me?” Ainsley chuckled. “Visiting hours are over in another hour, and I might just make it if I run.” 

It was close, almost too close, but he watched as Ainsley skated in with ten minutes to spare, dropping into a chair in his hospital room, then immediately popping back up. “Shit! You probably need me close to you, right?” 

“I’ve got no idea,” Eggsy shrugged. “Why not? Can’t hurt.” 

He reached out to the image again, wincing at the same intense, almost painful cold, and stretched. 

“Actually, this can hurt, it turns out. Jesus Christ,” Eggsy gasped. 

“You should stop; we’ll find another way-” 

“Not yet,” Eggsy interrupted. “Let me keep trying. I don’t want you to have to go to the palace unless there’s no other option. I don’t know what he might do to you guys.” 

Ainsley was silent, but he could feel the apprehension and worry radiating off of him as he kept on. 

It was terrible, his body was so close but he felt so far. Finally, there was the sensation of skin, of emptiness, but somehow he knew that was right, it was for him to fill, even as it continued to hurt, sharp bright shining pain that ricocheted through every part of him-

A hand yanked him back, and he screeched. 

“Eggsy?” 

He ignored Ainsley only for a moment, to glare at his father. “I don’t know what happens to you during an exorcism, or whatever they’ll have to do, and frankly, I don’t care now. I hope it destroys you! How dare you?! I was so close!” 

“What happened, Eggsy?” 

He was so sick of weeping, of breaking down, but he couldn’t help it. Every thing felt like an assault on his head and his heart. “He pulled me back. I was so close, Ains. I could feel it. I’m so sorry. I can try again.” 

“You sound tired,” Ainsley murmured. “You’ll need to be strong as possible, when you get back in. The doctors don’t half believe any of this, of course, and they don’t know what if any damage there will be once we get you back where you’re meant to be. I don’t want to wait, but I want you safe. It would kill me to get you back, only to lose you all over again.” 

Eggsy nodded. “You’re right. I know you are, but I hate it. I was almost there!” 

“I know,” Ainsley said, and Eggsy could see the tears rolling down his cheeks as he leaned down to kiss Eggsy’s body, still and pale in the hospital bed. “We’ll be there tomorrow, and we’ll get you back. Or I’ll die trying, I swear it. I hope your father can hear that.” 

Eggsy turned and looked to his father, whose face was just barely visible, grinning, in the shadows. 

“He heard it.” 

“Good,” Ainsley replied. “I’m going to head home, before they kick me out. You rest up, and we’ll end this all tomorrow, I promise.” 

Eggsy nodded. “Least I can still see you, and we can hear each other until then.” 

“Exactly,” Ainsley said. “We’ve got that, if nothing else.” 

He watched silently then, as Ainsley returned home, finished packing, and settled in for the night, though his sleep was restless. 

_You understand it somewhat now._

Eggsy didn’t reply, and instead watched his boyfriend, his fiance now really, since the ring he’d been saving for just the right moment had been found and was worn, toss and turn. 

It was going to be a long night.


	4. 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I’m not projecting any sort of issues with my own dad onto what Eggsy has going on with his dad. 
> 
> Not at all, because the situation is not nearly the same. Just in some bits and ways.
> 
> Just a random author’s note there.
> 
> Anyway, our boy is still trapped and waiting for rescue. But will they be able to free him, and if they do, how will he fare after? In between, how much rockier can things get between Eggsy and his dear old dad?
> 
> Read on to find out!

He couldn’t call it sleep. He was tired, but whatever it was didn’t do anything to remedy that. 

_Sleep well?_

“Don’t even bother,” Eggsy muttered as he sat up. “I don’t want to hear a word from you.” 

_Is that a no?_

“You really think you can backtrack it? After fucking holding me hostage, wherever this is, screaming at me for not magically making sure our lives went exactly the way you wanted them to after you were gone, and keeping me from getting back to my body? You know, Mum and Harry never mentioned you to be a stupid man, but I’m wondering now.” 

_You almost understand completely. You’ve almost learned everything I need you to know._

“For. Fuck’s. Sake!” Eggsy shouted, and the shadows rippled with the force of his voice. “Enough with this cryptic bullshit. ‘oh you’ve nearly learned it all’, ‘aha, your moment of understanding is nearly upon you’ shut the fuck up!” 

_I cannot tell you the part you need to feel. To understand how much it hurts, to watch someone you care for move on without you._

Eggsy scoffed. “Is that it? You want to keep me back long enough to watch everyone else in my life move on, while my body lays in hospital, and be miserable about it?” 

_Misery loves company._

“And there are no other miserable ghosts you could talk to? Any dead therapists about, no?” Eggsy asked. 

_I could tell you the rest, if you wish. But you ought to learn it for yourself._

“And how fucking long would that take, whatever you’re babbling about, yet somehow still not telling me anything!” 

_You were close, yesterday._

Eggsy moaned in frustration and let himself flop back onto the floor. “Just tell me then. I’m so tired of this. Of you. And do you know how messed up that is? Because for years…” 

He ran a hand down his face. “For years, I begged to hear anything from you. Something. One last word, and then I would be good. And now I’ve got it, more than I asked for even, and look how it is. Better I had never asked at all.” 

_Your mother and I were friends with Harry for a good few years before you were born._

“Again, something I’d already figured. Wonderful, are you going to tell me about all the picnics you had together? Or what?” 

_Your mother and Harry, in particular, got on very well. He was the one who solely convinced her I ought to try and join Kingsman. Though, he didn’t tell her it was that, just a ‘secret service.’_

“Now that is something of a surprise,” Eggsy said. “She still isn’t fond of him, at least that I’ve witnessed. But it makes sense, why she was so angry with him after you died.” 

_She’s always wanted the best for you. You know that?_

“I do,” Eggsy replied. “Do you? Considering how upset you were I didn’t prevent her from meeting Dean? Surely, you must think that wasn’t best for anyone.” 

_Eggsy…_

“Don’t you fucking act like that, you tore me to shreds just a day ago over this,” Eggsy protested. 

_Fair enough. That said, you could understand if she had kept things from you, right?_

“Please, please, please, just get to it. Just tell me. I am so glad I didn’t inherit the story-telling gene from you, because no one would ever talk to me again,” Eggsy muttered. “Harry’s similar, at times. I see why you two got along. Probably never finished telling each other a single story, but-” 

_I am trying to tell you!_

“Then get on with it!” 

A glare he could feel from the shadows, that he returned. 

_I helped raise you, while I was there. But it should have been Harry._

“He is a better father figure, that I do agree with,” Eggsy said. “Especially considering he’s never imprisoned me in some sort of purgatory and shouted at me for multiple days, scaring the absolute shit out of me in the process. Glad to see you’re recognizing your own failings. That’s important for personal growth, or so I’m told.”

_Are you listening?_

“I am, is that somehow not obvious?” 

_He’s your fucking father, alright?_

Eggsy felt his heart drop as he sat up. “That’s it then. That’s why you’re still so upset.” 

Silence.

“So what did you want him to do then? Just swoop in and take Mum and marry her? When did you even find out?” 

_After I died. There had been doubt before, but Harry had said we would have a test done, find out after we got back from that last mission. Then we’d figure out what we wanted to do._

Eggsy nodded. 

_You know part of this already. I died, Harry survived. I watch him go back to you and Mum, the test gets done, confirms you’re his. And then he hands you that fucking pendant and leaves._

Eggsy nodded again. It was all he could manage, thoughts swirling in his head. 

_Once he knew, he should have stepped up, and cared for you two. I know by then him and Merlin were…involved. But that shouldn’t have been you and Mum’s problem, shouldn’t have been an excuse to leave you two alone in the world. Selfish fucking bas-_

“Selfish?” Eggsy scoffed. “Why?” 

_You don’t find that selfish?_

“No, I don’t.” Eggsy replied “He was worried about leaving people behind if he died while on a mission, I know he still worries about it with Merlin, and they work for the same fucking spy organization! Why would he want to take on someone else’s family, just to possibly leave them if he died?” 

_But he’s your-_

“I heard you,” Eggsy interrupted. “And that…once I’m back, I need to talk to him about that, right away. Whether he’s ready for that conversation or not. Whether I am, or not, frankly. If I was younger, maybe it would upset me more…but I’m not.” 

He shrugged. “I’m all grown up now, as I’m sure you’ve noticed. And yeah, maybe him stepping up to take us in would have been ideal, in a perfect world. But if Mum didn’t love him, and he didn’t love her? What good would that have been? Would we really have been happy? I know he’s happy with Merlin now, and I imagine he was then too. If him being apparently bisexual happens to be the problem-” 

_I didn’t say that._

“And I don’t want to put words in your mouth,” Eggsy replied. “That’s why I need you to actually talk to me. Because you know what? You’re just as much my dad at the end of the day then. Maybe not by blood, but you said it yourself. You helped raise me, at first. Probably would have kept on, until you had the test done, right?” 

No response from the swirling shadows. 

“I bet you would have. Sure, you’re angry, and you were then too, I’d wager. But you weren’t going to let me and Mum be left alone in the interim of figuring it all out. After that, who can say, because we just can’t know for sure. We don’t live in a version of the world where we got to see that happen. I can see why you’re still upset, and I’m not trying to say you shouldn’t feel that way. But why can’t the way things happened, the way they are, be enough, if we can’t change them?” 

Still nothing. 

“Harry acts like a father to me now. And who knows, maybe he would have been more involved in my life if given the chance. I figure Mum wouldn’t have been real keen on that, though she’s well within her right to feel that way of course. There’s a lot of emotions, a lot of pain and from the sounds of it, broken relationships, in all of that. It just isn’t simple enough to say one of the three of you is the most wrong, or should shoulder the most blame. Maybe instead, I can just…look to you all, for guidance. As parents. Maybe none of you need to take a whole bucket of blame. Maybe you all just need to…accept it for what it is, and live life or afterlife, in your case, as best you can.” 

_You think you’ve got it all figured out. You think you can just erase the past, erase everything they did, what happened-_

“Not at all,” Eggsy shook his head. “I’d love to ‘have it all figured out’, as would a lot of people I reckon. But I’m learning, as time goes on. As things happen to me, around me, as I do things. I mean, Kingsman itself was a huge thing and everyone I count as friends and family there, then Tilde and our marriage, then the divorce and now Ainsley…That’s all happened in a few short years. Can you imagine what I’ll have learned by the time I’m forty?” 

_You think you should be able to go back now, don’t you?_

Eggsy stared into the shadows. “Can I see you again, Dad?” 

_Don’t call me that._

“I will,” Eggsy said. “Because you are, at least in part, my dad. Just like Harry is. Whether you like it or not. Just come sit by me. Face to face. Man to man.” 

The footsteps sounded heavy that approached him, as finally his father-one of them, at least-sat in front of him. His face was whole again, no rot visible. 

“There you are,” Eggsy said softly. “I know what I’m suggesting does not make everything right, or change what happened. But we’ve been over this. None of us can do that. But we can try and be happy, the lot of us, with things as they are.” 

_I’m dead. How am I to do that?_

“You can see me, right? Whenever I wear this?” Eggsy held up the pendant off his chest. “I keep wearing it, and you can keep an eye on me, and Mum too, when I go check on her. I’ll do that more, for your sake, if you’d like.” 

His father nodded. 

“I know it isn’t exactly what you want,” Eggsy said, and reached out for him. The hand he touched was solid, but cold. “You’d want for me to go back, to change it all somehow. For you to come home from that mission, to make your own choices about the future. To decide if you would still want to join Kingsman, after finding out…well. To decide if you’d stay with Mum, or what would happen then. To decide if you’d want to keep being active in my life or not. I can’t imagine that pain, not fully.” 

He took a deep breath. “And I get it now. You wanted to show me that pain, wanted me to feel it. But I can’t feel it, exactly the same way you did. If you keep me here, all you’ll do is create new pain, a new story of hurt. And for what? To try and get back at Mum and Harry, to hurt everyone else in my life? Over them not acting in the way you wanted them to, not sticking to a script you wrote from beyond the grave that they wouldn’t have even had any way of knowing about?” 

His father’s eyes were full of tears. 

“I can’t take away the hurt you were left with when you died, that you’ve had years to stew on and think about. But I can try to make you proud out there. I can try to be a good man, with you and Harry and Mum all backing me. Isn’t that better, than the two of us being miserable here, and upset with each other?” 

He wanted to scream at his father to answer, to say something, but instead he watched as he stood, and walked away, fading into the shadows. 

“Good talk,” he mumbled to himself, and watched the image that he’d neglected so he could focus on his father. 

Ainsley and Roxy were in the mansion, setting up a veritable nerve center, for seemingly every possibility, including if he came back but his body somehow teleported back to the palace, rather than staying at the hospital. 

“Good luck guys,” he said to the image, staying just far enough from it that Ainsley wouldn’t be able to hear him. “I can’t wait to be back. Hurry, if you can.” 

He talked to keep himself busy, since there wasn’t enough room to pace, but eventually the words stopped. They didn’t mean anything, platitudes that he wasn’t close enough for them to hear, because they wouldn’t have helped things even if Ainsley could hear him. 

Finally, he heard Ainsley reach out to him. “Eggsy, love? You good?” 

“I’m okay,” he managed as he crept closer. 

“You don’t sound okay.” 

“Can I tell you guys later? After I’m back home? Just easier that way.” 

“Sure,” Ainsley replied. “But are you okay until then? We’ll need you focused for this.” 

“I can do it,” Eggsy replied. “I have to. I can’t stay here, not a minute longer.” 

“Hang on,” Roxy’s voice was faint, but just audible as he watched them walk in front of a mirror, presumably the one he was in. “We’ll get you out in no time, so long as this works.” 

“I trust you,” Eggsy said. “I just can’t wait to see you all again.” 

“I know,” Roxy said happily. “We can’t wait either. Now, I’ll need you to-what the hell?” 

He watched from their view as the mirror in front of them started to swing from side to side in its place, then slipped forward, further, further…

“No!” 

The sound of shattering glass filled his ears, and he felt a hand pulling him further into the shadows before he could say another word.


	5. 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things are…not going so hot, putting it mildly (ha, for the sort of play on words, but not really, because Eggsy is once again Going Through it. I owe him as a character for the shit I keep putting this boy through lol.) 
> 
> But as I said before he’s got this. One way or another.

“You did this!” his voice was hoarse as he screamed, then screeched, his throat raw. “After everything we talked about, still! Why?!” 

No answer, just the hand still tugging him by the arm through the shadows.

“At least answer me. You owe me that much.” 

His father’s face was at his in a burst of light. 

_Do I now? What am I even to you? Like you said, I wasn’t there to take care of you growing up-_

“That was before I knew, before you told me-” 

_NO! How can I be anything to you? I’m not your father, and you were still young when I died. Young enough for me to be a stranger._

“Then why keep me here? If you’re supposed to be a stranger to me, then that’s what I must be to you, right? So why would you want a stranger here with you? You could find any other miserable spirit stuck nearby, and go talk to them. You let me go, and I’ll toss this pendant in the nearest river, in the ocean even! Then you can go wherever you want, find whoever you want.” 

His father stopped, and they stood, face-to-face. 

“I know what you’ve told me, and I don’t know how many times I can say it, because I feel like a broken record,” Eggsy said, as he realized tears were again streaming down his face, and he thought it was a hell of a thing that one could cry after death, or in the space just before it. “Yes, Harry might be my biological father. And he’s been a father figure to me since I joined Kingsman, and I’m thrilled with that. I love him, and I know he loves me, and we’re family in that way. But growing up, it was you I thought of. When I was scared, when I was lonely, when I could hear Mum crying because she was feeling the same and she couldn’t bear to even be in the same room with me. You were the one I called out to, that I asked to tell me what to do. Or that I wished would somehow come through the front door and be there for us. You can’t tell me that doesn’t mean something.” 

He tried to wipe away the tears with his free hand. “You can hate it all you like, but we aren’t strangers. If we were, you’d wouldn’t have tried to communicate, wouldn’t have trapped me here. Even after I go back, you will still be important to me, and a piece of my life, and a father to me. Why can’t you accept that?” 

_I can accept that._

Eggsy threw up his free arm in frustration. “Then what is this?” 

_What I can’t accept is going back to being alone. To being in this pain, alone. I’m sorry._

“You aren’t sorry,” Eggsy wept. “You’re just saying that because you know you should. Sorry is what a dad would say, dragging his child into a difficult but necessary situation, like a doctor’s visit. But I’m not a toddler going in for their shots, I’m an adult, and if you do this, you’ll end my life before I even get a chance to fully live it.” 

_Now you know how I felt._

His father let go of his hand, and again faded into the shadows. 

“No, we aren’t doing this,” Eggsy said, half to his father, and half to himself as he stumbled through the shadows as quickly as he dared, searching for another bit of glass, some sign that he’d found another mirror. He didn’t know what else he could possibly escape out of, what else could possibly serve as an appropriate portal. “I’m not dying today.” 

The shadows shifted faster around him, whirring into a maelstrom of painful blanket sounds, including weeping and screaming in pain. He didn’t know all who it was, but he didn’t have time to find out. 

Finally, the thunk of a pane of glass as he ran nearly face-first into it. 

“Ainsley! Roxy! I’m here!” 

The image from before flickered into life by him, and he knelt in front of it. 

“Ains! Roxy! Can either of you hear me?” 

“I can hear you! We’re on the way, we’ve just got to find you again. The mirror, it was wild, like it tossed itself off of the wall-” 

“My dad,” Eggsy interrupted. “He doesn’t want me to go.” 

“Well, that’s too damn bad!” Ainsley scoffed. “We’re getting you back, no matter what. We’ve got back up plans A-Z, there’s no giving up today.” 

His heart swelled. “You have no idea how good it is to hear that.” 

He watched as the new mirror suddenly appeared in the image. “There! Now what do you two need me to do?” 

“We have a few ideas,” Roxy’s voice came in, crackling as if on an old radio. “First, we just have you. Well, it’s weird.” 

“We had to turn to various sources for ideas,” Ainsley said. “Some of them…we don’t know how well they work. So we’re trying everything.” 

“You think of your body, back in the hospital, and supposedly you can transport yourself there,” Roxy said. “That’s what one medium told us. I figure you already sort of tried that with Ainsley, like he told me, but you could see your body through him then. Maybe now, if you just think of it, without your father there to pull you away…” 

“I don’t even know where he is,” Eggsy admitted. “But I can try.” 

He let his hands rest on the coolness of the image, and tried to summon it up. How broken and pale his body had looked in the bed, how it would have felt if he’d been in it and able to feel when Ainsley had kissed it the night before. 

But he felt nothing. 

“I’m sorry,” he said softly. “I can’t…maybe I’m not doing it right.” 

“No worries, that’s just one option,” Roxy said. “The other, is we try and get you into a smaller mirror, that we can take to the hospital, and then have you try to get back via that.” 

“And what if something happens to the mirror in transit?” 

Ainsley and Roxy winced.

“We’re worried about that as well,” Ainsley said with a sigh. “Maybe we can shelf that one for now.” 

Roxy nodded. “You want to try the other of the Big Three?” 

Ainsley nodded back. 

“What does that mean?” Eggsy asked. 

“It means, you try and…the medium that mentioned it essentially described it as possession. Just, safe possession, because you aren’t trying to actually take over my body, but share it for a brief period of time until we would get home and to the hospital,” Ainsley replied.

“You want me to do that? Are you sure? I mean, what happens to you during it?” 

Ainsley shrugged. “We’ll find out together. I just want you back with me, with us. Safe and healthy and happy. And I’ll do whatever I have to, to make that happen.” 

The engagement ring on Ainsley’s hand glinted in the faint light in the hall, what little Eggsy could see in the image. 

“Okay.” 

“Good,” Roxy interjected. “Now, for this, you just…do what you did in the hospital before, but try for Ainsley instead. Whenever you’re ready…” 

He took a deep breath, and looked around him, for any shapes or sign of of his father. Nothing.

“Ready, Ains?” 

Ainsley nodded. 

The cold was just as painful, just as intense, but he tried to ignore it as he reached through the image for Ainsley. 

It was like reaching out to him for a hug, to hold his hand, to cling to him at night whenever he got cold. He tried to think of it as just normal, as if he was already in his body, just desperately in need of Ainsley’s touch. 

Then, warmth, and dizziness. 

“Eggsy?” 

He couldn’t see Ainsley anymore, but he could hear him perfectly, as if they were standing side by side. 

“Sweetheart! I think it worked. Are you okay?” 

“Bit dizzy, but otherwise fine. Head feels…odd. Not bad, just different,” Ainsley replied. “Is it as empty up there as we’d both feared?” 

Eggsy laughed. “Shut up. No, I’ve hardly got room with your brain taking up all the space.” 

Ainsley giggled, and it was an experience. Like warm rain and light sun on his skin, comforting and soft. He wanted to wrap himself in it. 

“You have a beautiful laugh. In here, I mean, via…this. It’s absolutely gorgeous.” 

“Thank you,” Ainsley chuckled, and again, the burst of feeling came over him. “But we’ve got to get out now. Your father…well. If he was alive, he’d be getting a bill for these damages, that’s for sure. Tossing anything he can find at us, but we’re on the way out now.” 

“Oh thank fuck,” Eggsy sighed. “This nightmare is almost over.” 

“Almost,” Ainsley agreed. “Just to get you home, back to your body, then to get the palace repaired and cleansed. He wasn’t willing to stay attached to the pendant, I take it?” 

“I don’t know if he is for sure or not,” Eggsy admitted. “That would be easiest. I think I’m going to throw it in the ocean the first chance I get. I gave him a chance, I…it’s really hard to explain right now. But I promise I will, once I’m back where I should be.”

He could feel Ainsley nod, then sat back and waited. There wasn’t much else to do, after all, and he could, oddly enough, feel a headache creeping into Ainsley’s head. Likely a result of his being there, and he didn’t want to make it any worse for him. The poor thing already got migraines, he certainly didn’t this one turning into one of those. 

It was odd, hearing the world via Ainsley. He could hear them packing up outside the palace, talking jovially over their victory, then the travel to the airport. All the usual sounds were present, yet deadened just enough, as if he was hearing them through a long tunnel. Even the sounds of the flight home weren’t quite the same, though hearing Ainsley’s ears pop was interesting. 

He could even smell at some points, the scent of the hospital in particular. “You hate that smell too!” 

“Reminds me of death, but I don’t like telling anyone,” Ainsley replied. “After all, most people who come to hospital are hoping not to die, seems bad manners to bring it up.”

“True,” Eggsy said, then fought back his discomfort at seeing himself in the hospital bed. “God, that’s weird. Weirder than I thought it would be. It isn’t you, just…” 

“It’s the situation,” Ainsley said sympathetically. “Ready to go back?” 

“I am,” Eggsy replied. “And we’ll have the nurse get you some medicine for that headache.” 

Ainsley gave him one last sweet giggle, and he focused on that feeling before reaching back out for his body. 

It didn’t have the coldness of the shadows, but instead a heat, almost unbearable. He pushed past it, and felt skin, his skin. 

He was back, and immediately pain slammed his body. 

“Jesus fucking Christ,” he gasped, or tried to, but couldn’t with the tube down his throat. He tried not to choke on it as nurses and a few doctors came flooding into the room, pushing aside Ainsley and Roxy to unhook him from some of the tubes and wires. 

When he was resituated to their liking, they drifted away again, leaving the room as quickly as they’d come, but with smiles on their faces. 

“How do you feel?” Roxy asked. 

“Honestly? Like shit,” Eggsy croaked, and reached up to massage his throat, careful not to hit the IV in his hand. “Can I get water, or something?”

“Of course, we should have thought of that,” Ainsley was suddenly a nervous chicken racing around with its head cut off, nearly out the door before Roxy grabbed him by the shirt sleeve. 

“There’s some right here. You sit, and rest. Both of you need it now,” she directed as she poured a cup of water from the tray attached to his bed. “I’ve told Tilde to ensure the palace stays closed yet, until we can get it cleansed somehow.” 

“Maybe my dad came with,” Eggsy remarked, and lifted the pendant on his chest. “We could ask him, before we fuss with the palace. He was attached to this mainly before, after all.” 

“We should have you take that off, I think,” Roxy said with a nervous twitch of her hand as she handed over the cup. “I don’t trust it being on you, if that’s the case.” 

“Fair enough, but that might upset him more,” Eggsy said. “We could try taking it off though. I think I’m going to toss it away somewhere anyway. Make him someone else’s problem.” 

Roxy and Ainsley frowned. 

“I thought you had a good relationship with him. Before…” Ainsley said. “You know. What happened?” 

Eggsy sighed, and both hated and relished how exhausted he felt, and that he could feel it physically at all. “How long have you got?” 

“All night,” Roxy said, and reached around his neck carefully to remove the pendant, setting it down on the bedside tray. The pendulum was already gone, apparently taken off of him at some point earlier. “As long as you need to tell us.” 

“Make sure that water is topped up, and the nurses won’t kick you two out after visiting hours are over,” Eggsy replied. “I don’t want to be alone here, silly as it sounds. I was essentially alone in that place for what felt like ages; I know it wasn’t, but…” 

“I’m sure they can make an exception. If we mention secret service type business…” Ainsley said, and raised an eyebrow.

Roxy nodded. “Let me go see what I can do. You two just stay put and relax.” 

Once Roxy was out of the room, Eggsy scooted over and patted the side of the bed, just barely big enough for another person. 

“That might get you in trouble,” Ainsley said. “I don’t want to unhook anything accidentally.” 

“Just the IV over here, and I’ll watch it,” Eggsy said. “Come on. Life is for the living, right? So let’s live it up as much as we can, here. Which isn’t much, I admit.” 

Ainsley giggled, and he remembered how warm a feeling it had been when he’d been almost literally one with him. 

“Your laugh is like warm rain, did you know that?” 

Ainsley snuggled close to him, and looked up at him with a curious smile. “You mean like the feeling of it?” 

Eggsy nodded. “Like warm rain on your skin, on a summer day. Refreshing, but not enough to make you cold or uncomfortable.” 

Ainsley’s lips, gentle on his, brought him to tears. 

“I was so afraid I wouldn’t get to feel that ever again,” he whispered, and hugged Ainsley close, taking in the feeling of his clothing, spots where he could feel skin, the texture of his hair as he ran his fingers through it. “I’m so glad I can. I’m so lucky, and I knew it before, but now…it means even more. I need you to know that. I love you.” 

He could feel Ainsley’s tears dripping onto his skin, an ‘I love you’ in sensation. He wanted to hang onto every bit of that feeling, to never forget it. Because he knew now that someday, hopefully far off in the future, there would come a time when he wouldn’t be able to feel it anymore, and it would be hell. 

Roxy quietly slipped back into the room. “I can come back-” 

“No,” Eggsy interrupted. “It’s okay. I want you both here.” 

Ainsley raised his head from Eggsy’s shoulder, and wiped at his tears. “Intel update time then? I mean, that’s essentially what this is, even if it isn’t intel of the usual kind.” 

Eggsy nodded. “Settle in. There’s a lot.” 


	6. 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Emotions, tears, talks, lots of that in this chapter! Eggsy finally gets to rest some and recharge (and should just sit and enjoy it, but you know he won’t lmao.)

The hospital room was dark except for the bedside lamp by the time he was done telling them everything, and they were keeping quiet, per the request of the ward nurses. 

But he could see on Roxy and Ainsley’s faces, that they wanted to be a lot louder. 

“I have to admit,” Ainsley whispered carefully, as he sucked on an ice chip, for the headache Eggsy could see was still sticking around. “That does explain the resemblance. I’d wondered…I mean, it isn’t so strong that I would think he had to be your dad, it would just seem likely. You look plenty like your mum though, too.”

Roxy nodded. “There’s nothing in the Kingsman records about it, but surely he used the Kingsman lab?” 

“Probably was able to keep it quiet that way,” Eggsy said. “That’s what I figure. No NHS record for it to be tied to. I wouldn’t know unless he told me, or Mum did.” 

“And instead…” 

“My dad did. My other dad, I suppose. I told him that, you know. That I still consider him a father, just as much as Harry. But I don’t think he accepted it, or believed me, or something. He was so upset, so angry.” 

“I’m so sorry,” Roxy said softly, reaching over to rub his arm. “If I had any idea it was him that was there, I wouldn’t have even had you come with me on that mission. You were in danger from the second we walked into the palace.” 

“True, but had I not gone with, maybe you wouldn’t have gotten anything, and what then?” Eggsy asked. “Tilde would keep seeing and hearing things, so would you, and eventually maybe you’d stop going there for the occasional getaway. For our group movie nights. And he’d have just receded into the history of the place, another rumored ghost stuck lingering the halls.” 

“That’s a good point,” Roxy said. “Still. I wish we could have found this all out without you being captured.” 

“I’m back now, and we’ll end this,” Eggsy said, trying and failing to fight off a yawn. “However we have to. He can’t be allowed to stay there, and I had offered him to stay with the pendant, but now…” 

“You don’t want it anywhere near you if he’s still attached to it?” Ainsley asked, crunching on the last bit of the ice chip. 

Eggsy nodded. 

“You’re falling asleep sitting up,” Roxy said. “Come on. We can talk more tomorrow, figure out a game plan, after your mum and Daisy have visited. Harry and Merlin and Tequila will be coming by as well.” 

“Janice holding down the office then?” 

Roxy nodded. “She wants to come visit, but she volunteered to stay put since she’s a behind the scenes agent usually anyway. Figured she could keep an eye on the cameras we left in the palace, let us know if anything major happens there.” 

“Hopefully nothing,” Eggsy sighed. 

“Exactly,” Roxy yawned. “Oh hell, we need to sleep.” 

She turned off the bedside lamp, and handed one of the room’s extra pillows to Ainsley, taking the other for herself as she settled into one of the two chairs in the room. 

He watched as they both dropped off, Roxy’s head propped against the arm of the armchair as she curled tighter into it. Ainsley was snuggled as close as he could possibly be, his breath warm on Eggsy’s chest, through the thin hospital gown. 

He couldn’t relax enough to sleep though. His eyes flitted from one side of the room to the other, watching for anything strange. Any shadows, any odd sounds. 

For the first hour, there was nothing. Just the sound of the rain that had started outside, and Ainsley softly snoring. 

Then the pendant moved. 

It was just a bit, just a dart across from the one side of the bedside tray to the other. But it was too distinct to be random. 

“Don’t you start,” he whispered fiercely, and the pendant whisked itself back to the other side of the tray, then back and forth, over and over, as if taunting him. 

“Enough!” he grumbled, trying to be quiet, but Ainsley still poked his head up. 

“Hm? I’m snoring, aren’t I? I’m sorry, darling. I’ll try and be quiet.”

“No, not you,” Eggsy said. “The…look at it.”

Ainsley struggled to turn his head about enough, but once he did, his eyes went wide. “What in the fuck?” 

“That’s him! It has to be, that is no fucking accident it’s doing that!” 

Ainsley moved away from him, careful not to disrupt the IV, and reached out just far enough to grab the pendant’s chain and stop it. He lifted it up, and glared at the pendant. “Shut up. My fiance can’t sleep with you moving this about, and he needs his sleep.” 

He set the pendant down, and it immediately began its travels again. 

Ainsley scowled, and yanked it off the tray again, rattling it so loudly Roxy jerked awake. 

“Are you listening? If you care for Eggsy at all, then you’ll shut the fuck up, now! You’ll stop this, or I’ll toss you into the fucking ocean at the edge of Greenland and hope a Greenland shark fucking eats you, you insolent prick.” 

Roxy blinked a few times, then yawned. “I don’t know what’s happening, but whoever we’re saying this to, don’t test him. He’ll do it, we can get him a plane out there.”

Ainsley shook the pendant as way of explanation, and Roxy nodded. 

He set it down gently, and it didn’t move. 

“There,” he chirped happily, and moved back to snuggle against Eggsy’s chest. “Get some rest now.”

Eggsy stared at the pendant, then at Ainsley, then met Roxy’s half-asleep smile. 

“Was he going to fight the ghost of my dad for me?” 

Roxy nodded. “I think so. He’s right though, you need sleep. Go to bed.”

Her head dropped to her pillow with a soft thud, and he wished for it to be that easy. 

But he tossed, and turned, and more than once he could tell he’d woken up Ainsley, and he wanted to say sorry before sleep took him again, but he never managed it. 

“Oh, look at him. That’s my little boy. He looks so much better, doesn’t he?” 

He woke with a start at the sound of his mum’s voice, his eyes still bleary as he replied. “Hi Mum. Daisy, you here, where are you?” 

He could feel little hands scrabbling at the blanket on his bed, and he tried to wipe the sleep from his eyes before reaching for her. 

“Here,” Ainsley’s face came into view as he helped Daisy onto the bed. “There’s big brother, yeah? On the mend, looking like himself again.” 

Daisy, her eyes big with uncertainty, gave a hesitant nod, and carefully touched the tube of the IV in his hand. 

“It’s okay,” Eggsy said, and urged her closer. “Come sit with me, you won’t hurt me, I promise.”

Her hug was gentle, but it was the sweetest thing. How could his father want to be rid of someone so kind, so caring, young as she was? 

As he met Daisy’s eyes, happier now as she started to chat enthusiastically in the way four-year-olds were apt to do, about anything and everything that crossed her mind, he wondered if it was death that had made his father so angry, so cruel, or if he had reacted in similar ways to a four-year-old Eggsy, and he just couldn’t remember it. 

The thought threatened tears, but he held them back, focusing instead on Daisy’s story of the cat next door that was her new best friend. 

“That is fantastic. I’m happy for you, but you have got to draw me a picture of him. You think you can do that for me?” 

Daisy nodded and smiled, even as his mum came over and took her off the bed. 

“Why don’t you, Ainsley, and Roxy go see if the nurses have any crayons and paper, hm? Eggsy and I need to have a bit of grown-up talk.” 

He took a deep breath, and watched as Ainsley and Roxy led Daisy out, only for Harry to step in right after them. 

“Now?” 

“Now,” Harry answered as he pulled the other chair in the room to the edge of the bed. “Ainsley and Roxy have let us know the situation…what your father told you. We owe it to you to tell you everything.” 

“Well,” his mum blushed as she sat in the remaining chair, scooting it closer to the bed edge on the other side. “Not everything, everything. I mean-” 

“Oh, goodness, no, I only meant,” Harry interrupted. “That’s not a great start, is it?” 

“Is there a real good way to start something like this? Probably not,” Eggsy said. “This is fine, I think.”

“Right,” Harry nodded. “You know the bare bones of it. Your mother and I-” 

“It was just a fling,” his mum interrupted. “Or it was meant to be, at least. Your father and I had sort of broken up, and at the time it seemed it might really be permanent, and Harry and I…back then, we got along better.” 

“Much better,” Harry said. “Do you remember that, Michelle? We were such good friends back then, all three of us. Strange what time and life will do to things like that.” 

She nodded. “We thought we were so careful that night. Not so careful after all, I suppose.”

“I’m right here,” Eggsy joked, hoping to lighten the absolutely painful weight in the air of the room, but they only stared at him. “Erm. I…sorry. I am though, just saying.”

“You are,” Harry said. “And you shouldn’t have been punished for the actions of adults that happened before you were even born. Your father should know better than that. He was a good man.”

“Was he?” Eggsy asked. “I mean, truly? Because the man I dealt with…that wouldn’t be a man I’d want to raise a family with. Or have a beer with. He was angry and mean and blamed everyone but himself for how things ended up.” 

“I-” 

“No,” Eggsy interrupted Harry, before the inevitable self-blame train could start rolling. “Sure, you could have checked over the target more carefully. But I’ll tell you what I told Dad: if he was really learning anything from Kingsman, if he was on his way to being a good agent and a better military man, then why the fuck didn’t he check the target as well? You all helped tie the man down, right? What prevented him from doing that?” 

His mum had gone eerily quiet, her face stone, a hand covering her mouth. 

“I don’t know if it’s my place to say…” Harry said finally. 

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Eggsy muttered. “Stop covering for him. You have carried the blame and pain and hurt of your part in his death for this long, and I am telling you now that you’re playing into what he wants. He wants us all miserable, the whole reason he held me hostage was to keep me, so you would all have to move on without me, and I’d know the pain he felt.” 

He leaned back into his pillow, and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. “I got a taste of it. And yeah, it sucked. But it would be pure selfishness if I had been stuck there with him, with no method of escape, and I had expected that none of you would move on. That you wouldn’t replace me with a new agent. That Ainsley wouldn’t eventually try and find someone else, that Roxy wouldn’t befriend other people and even the agent that would replace me. Say what you will, but death alone can’t have bred that in him. Some of that was already there. Maybe dying when he did, the way he did, made it worse.” 

He sighed. “But we can’t change any of it. I told him that. So why not just accept it for what it is? I mean, he’s still holding on to anger over that, over you two fucking-” 

“Hey!” Harry and his mum started at once, but he kept on over them. 

“Over you remarrying and having Daisy, Mum. Over any damn thing he can hang onto, and as much as I get it…it can’t be good, to hang onto it all like that. But he won’t let it go. I tried to talk to him, to tell him that for me, it simply is what it is. It’s finding out that really, I’ve got two dads, well, so what? One is dead and apparently an absolute asshole, so I think the two dads thing is really working out in my favor, actually.” 

“Eggsy!” his mum hissed.

“I know this is hard to hear, but I promise, if you both could have heard him, you’d understand-” 

“We did!” his mum snapped. “There were recordings, from some of the equipment Roxy had left behind…I just didn’t want it to be true. He could be kind. He was once, I swear.” 

Harry nodded. “I know that’s hard to believe. But the version of your father that we knew…he had his temper, sure. Could hold a grudge well, when he wanted. But he knew when to stifle those things. Death must change a person, or perhaps it will if one lets it change them. I’m not saying that means you or any of us should forgive him for what he did to you. For how he spoke to you. But if you were at all searching for an explanation as to why…that’s the best I think we’ve got.” 

Eggsy tried again to fight back tears, but it was useless. “This is the most I’ve cried in so many days, it’s ridiculous.” 

They shared a tearful giggle at that, and his mum took his hand. 

“You aren’t…upset then? With me. For not telling you, and for…everything, I guess. Over the years.” 

He held her hand tight. “You’re my mum. You were doing your best. I couldn’t have asked any more of you, and nor could anyone else. I love you.”

She stood up, and leaned forward to kiss his forehead. “I’m so happy you’re safe now. Was worried sick about you. You’ve got to keep getting better too, before you know it, we’ll have Daisy’s birthday and her party coming up. She’ll want you there.”

“And I can’t wait to be there,” Eggsy replied. 

She nodded. “I know Harry here wanted a bit of time alone with you; I’ll let you to it. You can always call me, if you have any questions about…that time. What happened. Why we didn’t tell you sooner. Anything at all, really. Just let me know; I’m always a call away.” 

It was like a hundred different ways to say I love you, and each one brought more happy tears to his eyes. He managed a wave as she left the room, and he heard her calling out to Daisy as she went. 

“She’s a good woman,” Harry said, his voice shaking as tears dripped down his face. “If things had been different…if I had been different, I could have been a better man to her.” 

“Don’t you start with that either,” Eggsy said. “You wouldn’t have been happy. And I already know from Dean that someone unhappy, in any way, doesn’t make for a happy household. Though I know you would never have been like he was, to me, to Mum…” 

Harry sighed. “I know. But knowing what pain you both went through those years makes it hard to say that to myself. And now that I know what your father expected of me-” 

“That’s what one father wanted,” Eggsy interrupted, and reached out to take Harry’s hand, gently. It wasn’t a sort of touch he’d tried before with him, but then again, this wasn’t just Harry, his mentor. Harry, his coworker and elder agent. This was now also Harry, his father. “But what about you? Because like I told my dad in there…I think of all three of you as my parents. So what you want, what you need, matters just as much. Whether he likes it or not.”

Harry’s hand held his back, tight, and it felt like watching the dawn come over the horizon of a new day. Things wouldn’t be the same after this, but that was okay. They were going to be better. 

“If you would have me,” Harry said slowly. “I would happily be a father to you. As an adult, I suppose, you don’t really have need of one in the same way…but I want to be there for you. Be a resource, a friend. Give you a good lecture, when you do something dangerous.” 

He and Harry both chuckled at that. 

“I can’t make up for those years you and your mum spent alone. I can’t even begin to try. But for the remainder of what time you and I both have on this plane of existence, I want to be a good father to you.”

“I’d like that,” Eggsy managed, using his other hand to wipe away the tears. “You’ve been doing it already, you know? Ever since I called in that favor, and you bailed me out. Thank you for that. For everything. I’m lucky to have as good a dad as you.”

The hug was surprising, if only because he could usually tell when Harry was about to do something like that, as it wasn’t his usual sort of reaction to much except the very biggest and best of news. 

But it felt good. It was the sort of hug he couldn’t ever remember having from his other father (and certainly never from Dean.) It was love and warmth and concern all in one moment, and it did nothing to stem the tears staining his face. 

“Does that make Merlin like a step-dad then? Since you two are together, I mean. Not a problem, of course, just curious-” Eggsy asked as they let go, and Harry sat back in his chair near the bed. 

Harry’s laugh cut him off, loud and happy and one of the best sounds Eggsy had heard in awhile. 

“I suppose it does. God, you’re just collecting us at this point.” 

“Gonna set a record,” Eggsy grinned. 

Harry reached over and softly tousled his hair. “You focus on that then, and on sleeping, for now. Ainsley said you barely slept, and you need it. The doctors still have a decent amount of testing to put you through I’m afraid, just to be sure that odd coma-like episode didn’t do any permanent damage.” 

Eggsy nodded. “Will I see you all before we get ready for the mission out to the palace, if we need to go back? Or will you all just come pick me up?” 

“One day at a time,” Harry said. “Just sleep for now, and we’ll work on that in a day or two, after the doctors have some information for us. I’ll send Ainsley back in to be with you, alright?” 

“Sure. Thanks, Dad.”

The smile on Harry’s face made his day, even if the whole conversation had left him exhausted. It was all too easy to lean back, shut his eyes, and sleep, now. And it was a relief. 


	7. 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nearing the end of this fic, and some sort of ending. How happy it will be remains to be seen, and part of that is going to be on how they handle everything after this chapter. 
> 
> But for now, some softness in the interim. I wanted to address how Eggsy and Tilde’s relationship has changed since the divorce in Dancer, how they’re still friends, but something like that means everything is just a little bit different. Not a bad thing, just Something. Just life. 
> 
> Also, tossed in my own habit of having odd nightmares about trauma, and my firm belief that Eggsy can definitely braid hair well (and Taron as well tbh, he has little sisters, there is no way that man can’t braid hair with his eyes shut.) Maybe a silly little hc for Eggsy and presumption abt Taron, but it makes me smile so it made it into the fic lol.

“The fuck do you mean I’m not going with?” 

“Eggsy,” Ainsley murmured, stood at one side of his bed. “You know we want you with us. But the doctors-” 

“Have run enough tests,” Eggsy interrupted. “It’s been two days of nothing but that!” 

“They just want to be sure,” Harry said, on the other side, a Kingsman briefcase already in his hand. “And we don’t want you going out only to get hurt. Besides, this is really just the last bit of reconnaissance on the palace. Nothing else has happened there since you were freed, and if there are any other ghosts around, they’re not bothering anyone. Tilde asked for one last once-over, then she’s happy to return there for your group movie nights, and anything else the Swedish government might use the building for in the future.”

“Well, I’m coming with when we get rid of this thing,” Eggsy said, pointing to the pendant, now relatively safe in a small velvet jewelry box Ainsley had brought in, on his bedside tray. 

“Of course, and once we get back from this, if you’ve been given clearance, then we’ll head right out with you to get rid of it however you want, that we can deem is safe,” Ainsley said. “I know this isn’t easy to hear, but you don’t want to leave just to end up back in here, do you?” 

“No,” Eggsy grumbled. “Hate that you’re both right about this though.”

“I know,” Harry said. “Take heart, this will be over soon enough and we’ll be back here with you, raring to go and toss that bloody necklace wherever you want.” 

“My vote is still for the Greenland shark idea,” Ainsley interjected. “Just one option of many, though.”

Eggsy grinned. “Harry.” 

“Yes?” 

“Did you just make a pun out of your own last name?” 

Harry gave him a small smile. “Suppose I did. ‘Take heart’, and all that.”

“Dad jokes,” Eggsy replied. “I love it. And I love the Greenland shark idea as well, so long as it won’t hurt the shark.”

“I mean, sharks aren’t meant to eat necklaces,” Ainsley said, then frowned. “There’s something I never thought I’d have reason to say. An odd sentence on the tongue. But maybe it could still work out. Like Harry said, before you know it we’ll be back. And in the meantime, I have this.” 

Ainsley set a small monitor on the bedside tray, and swung the tray closer to Eggsy, then pointed to the strange set of straps and the camera on his chest. “See? Body-mounted cam, so wherever I go, you can see. Whatever happens at the palace, which is likely to be incredibly boring, you’ll be able to watch.” 

“Okay, this I can work with,” Eggsy said, watching as Ainsley turned the camera on. “Eugh, is that me? Christ, I need a decent bath or a shower or something soon. Surprised you all haven’t gone running from the room in terror, me looking like this.” 

“You’re always gorgeous to me,” Ainsley hummed happily, and leaned carefully over the tray and monitor to kiss him. 

“How did I get so lucky with this one?” Eggsy asked Harry. “Look at him. I look an absolute mess, and he’s still wanting to kiss me.” 

“You’ve got a good one,” Harry smiled. “I’ll just borrow him briefly, and have him back at your side as quickly as we can manage. You rest, in the meantime. You know what the doctors have said.” 

“Take it easy or they’ll strap me to the bed so I’m forced to take it easy.”

“Right!” Harry replied. “There’s a good lad. We love you, take care.” 

With a few quick steps, they were out the door, and he couldn’t help but feel bad. 

“I’m supposed to be going with them,” he fussed to himself, but tried to content himself with watching the monitor as Ainsley headed out of the hospital with Harry.

“Hello!” Tilde’s voice was a ray of sun in his room, if an unexpected one. 

“Hey! What are you doing here?” 

“Here to check on one of my best friends, and make sure you stay in bed and rest,” Tilde replied, trotting to the bedside to lean over and give him a gentle hug. “And so I can watch what happens on that camera Ainsley is wearing. I’m feeling so much better about the palace now, but I want to see it for myself, you know? Especially after everything that happened to you, you poor thing.”

“Ah, I’m on the mend now,” Eggsy said. 

“Still, that was terrifying, waiting to hear if they could get you back, hearing about everything that happened, the recordings of your father…well,” Tilde shrugged. “One of your fathers.” 

“You heard that bit of the recordings then?” 

Tilde nodded as she dragged a chair close to his bed, angled so she could see the screen. “I did. All I can say on that, is that you shouldn’t have had to find out that way, with him acting like that. But it must be a relief, at the same time. Even if you had no idea, it’s this big secret finally out in the open. Just makes everything feel better, more open. Like throwing open the windows in spring after a long winter.” 

Eggsy nodded. “Here, let me turn this round, so you can see better. They’re just on the plane now, looks like.” 

From Ainsley’s camera, they could see Roxy and Harry sat in the leather seats of the Kingsman plane. They seemed calm, jovial even.

“I love her in that suit,” Tilde smiled. “She looks so good in green.” 

“She does,” Eggsy agreed, smiling himself at her happiness over Roxy. “That why it’s one of the wedding colors?” 

Tilde giggled. “You caught me. I’m hoping she’ll go for green accents at least, if not a full green suit or dress, whatever she’s wanting. She just shines in it.” 

“You think she shines in anything!” 

They both paused. 

“God, she does though, doesn’t she?” Eggsy continued. 

Tilde nodded. “If modeling wouldn’t ruin her career with Kingsman I could get her a shoot like that, I’m telling you.” 

The image on the screen jostled, and they both jumped. 

“Just turbulence,” Eggsy sighed. “Weather bad out there, or something?” 

Tilde shook her head. “Not that I know of. But they do look nervous, don’t they? I thought by now you all would be used to anything.” 

“You can plan for a mission going wrong in a hundred different ways,” Eggsy replied. “Can’t plan for the plane dropping out of the sky. Well, aside from all the parachutes on the plane already.” 

Tilde frowned. “That sounds like a scary way to live. Always presuming something will go wrong.” 

“In our line of work, it often does. Just the way it is,” he shrugged, and pointed to the screen. “Look, all fine now.” 

On the screen, everyone had settled back into their seats again, but Eggsy refrained from pointing out Roxy’s tell of nervousness, that he’d only ever seen while on missions: a fidgeting with her cuff links, as if she couldn’t decide if she wanted to take them off or not. 

The rest of the flight was boring, if he was honest. Uneventful, and the time after it was just work. The unloading of various cases and containers from the plane into a car, leaving just barely enough room for everyone to fit in, judging by how the camera on Ainsley suddenly wobbled and shook. 

The palace seemed fine, brighter and better than it had compared to when he had gone in with Roxy such a short time ago. He’d always thought that was some horror movie bullshit, but apparently, it wasn’t. 

“This place is cleansed,” he chuckled to himself, and Tilde cocked her head. 

“It is, isn’t it? I felt bad, sending them out there again, but I wanted to be safe. But now that you mention it…I used to feel uncomfortable just seeing a picture of it, like in the pictures we took together there. I don’t feel anything now.” 

“Might be that it’s all good now, but like you say: better safe than sorry. Besides, you know Roxy would have wanted a final sweep, even if you hadn’t asked for one,” Eggsy said. 

Tilde’s head came to rest on his stomach as they watched the rest of the mission. He couldn’t blame her.

It was just as boring as the flight had been. A whole lot of nothing, other than the occasional murmured conversation between Ainsley and the other agents. But no ghosts, no ghouls. No mirrors dropping off the walls, no one getting sucked into inescapable shadows. 

“Missions usually aren’t this horribly dull, I swear,” he said as he worked to braid a portion of Tilde’s hair, just as she’d always asked him to do in the past while they were watching TV or a movie. The sideways angle might have been a challenge to someone else, but it was as familiar as anything to him. “You must think I’ve been lying about them all this time.” 

“No,” Tilde mumbled sleepily. “I’m sort of glad it is this boring. I don’t think I’d want to see one with a lot of action.” 

“And why not?” 

“That would mean it was going wrong, wouldn’t it? It would mean, in this case, at least, that we were wrong and there were other unhappy spirits there still. It would be a lot more work for them as well. So better that it puts us to sleep,” Tilde yawned. 

Eggsy nodded. “I can have the nurse get you a cot, or you can jump up here with me.” 

Tilde sat up, and gently touched the braids he’d finished. “Still worrying about me, after everything?” 

“Of course,” he said. “May not be married or in love in that way anymore, but you’re still a dear friend. And I love and worry about all my friends.” 

“Even more so the ones you used to be married to?” 

“What are you trying to get at?” 

Tilde shrugged. “Nothing. I just didn’t expect it, I guess. Not to that degree, to offer me a spot in bed with you like that.” 

“I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean to, honestly. Just wanted to give you all available options, like I would to Ains, or Roxy, or even Harry, though he would literally never say yes to anything other than the cot.” 

“It’s okay,” Tilde replied. “I just…I didn’t want it to be weird. If I said yes, to joining you.” 

His mind raced for a moment, with what his father might have told him to do next, then with what Harry might say. 

He pushed both those thoughts away. 

“Look, it’s our relationship at the end of the day. As friends. We get to decide what we’re comfortable with and what’s ‘weird’ or not.” 

“What about Ainsley? What about what he would find weird?” Tilde asked, then looked down, and he could tell she was biting her tongue. 

“He wouldn’t find this weird. I can tell you that confidently. Because this is just two friends, napping, watching what may go down in history as the most boring Kingsman mission ever. Truly!” 

Tilde giggled at that. “It is, you’re right. On both counts. I don’t know why I’m worrying over it like this; it’s silly.” 

“Not silly at all. Nothing silly about having a concern or two while we figure this out. What we’re comfortable with, where the boundaries are now. Things changed, and we changed, and the lines change as a result,” Eggsy said. “All you can do is talk it out, like this. That said: you’re clearly going to fall asleep, so cot, or joining me?” 

Tilde hesitated. 

“Fair warning, I am disgusting right now. I need at minimum twelve showers, maybe thirteen. And don’t be fooled, this bed is not a dream to sleep on. However, the cots also look like they’ve not been improved on since 1918,” he continued. “So neither choice is ideal.” 

Tilde rolled her eyes, and motioned for him to scoot over, then pushed the chair away from the bed. “Roxy said she watched one of those cots fall apart in the hall as they were carrying it somewhere. Surely they all aren’t that bad, but I think I’ll risk your stink instead.” 

“That’s bold,” Eggsy laughed as she carefully climbed into the bed and snuggled against him. “Because Ainsley was cross-eyed after a minute near me, I swear. We’ll make you an agent for this, because this is about as dangerous as it gets.” 

“Shush,” Tilde giggled. “You should sleep too.” 

“I have been sleeping.” 

“I know. But after what you went through, you need all the rest you can get. Especially since I’ve heard a rumor you can go home in a few days if the last few tests come back clear.” 

The last round of testing had been mostly bloodwork, looking for what, Eggsy had no idea. But he would be happy to go home, to get away from being poked and prodded or told to rest constantly. 

“So, be a good boy and sleep and rest and maybe I’ll finally be free?” 

Tilde’s eyes were already shut, her head on his chest, but she nodded. 

He watched the screen for a bit longer, then finally let himself slip back into sleep. 

He was waiting near the front door of their old flat. A toy car in one hand, the pendant in the other. He was young, but he could only tell that because of how big and tall the front door seemed. 

He tried to reach for the door handle, but it was too high, and he was too short. 

“Dad?” he heard himself call, in a voice high and soft and scared. “I can’t let you in.” 

Something slammed into the door with a massive-sounding thud, and the door handle rattled. 

“I can’t reach it!” he protested, but the door only shook as something hit it again. 

He stumbled away from the door to the couch, then down the hall to the bedroom, but his mother was nowhere to be found. Nor was anyone else, for that matter. 

He was alone, and it sounded like the door was about to be broken down. 

Part of him wanted to go back to the door, but the part of him that was terrified, that just wanted to hide, won out. 

He crawled under the bed in his mother’s room, clutching the toy and pendant so tightly he could feel the plastic and metal leaving indents on his hands. 

“Please stop,” he begged quietly, too afraid to say it loud enough that his father might hear. It wouldn’t matter anyway, because he wouldn’t stop. He was going to tear the door off the hinges, if that was what got him inside. 

“Eggsy!” 

The scream that came from him was wordless, just the noise of a child too frightened to know what else to do. 

“Eggsy!” 

He let the car and pendant drop to the floor as he used his hands to cover his ears. If he couldn’t hear it, couldn’t hear the cracking of the door as it started to break and splinter, maybe it would all stop and go away. 

“Eggsy!” 

His eyes opened to a bright light, and he winced. 

“He’s alright,” a nurse had a small flashlight in his face, but clicked it off and put it back in her pocket. “Just a nightmare, I think. Am I right?” 

He managed a nod, and rubbed at his eyes as he took in the scene. 

It was dark now, and Tilde was out of the bed, looking over him worriedly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do. You weren’t waking up, but you were shaking, and whimpering, and I got scared when you wouldn’t wake up for anything, and-” 

He reached a hand over to her as he yawned. “It’s okay, Tilde. Thank you, for getting her. For making her wake me up.” 

“What was it?” Tilde asked, pulling the chair back over to the bed and sitting. 

“What was what?” 

“Your nightmare.” 

He shook his head. “Not important.” 

Tilde frowned, and shook her head. “Uh uh. None of that. Obviously it was something awful.” 

Eggsy grabbed the box the pendant was in, and turned it over in his hands. “He’s still trying to get to me, I think. Any way he can manage. I wonder if it’ll stop once I toss this thing.” 

“It has to,” Tilde said. “I mean…if it doesn’t, what would you do? That would be miserable.” 

He looked at the box, and frowned. “It would be. But I don’t know.” 

Tilde gently took the box from his hands, and moved it to the bedside table instead of the tray. “Let’s put him over here for now, why don’t we? Maybe distance will help.” 

Eggsy nodded, and carefully stretched. “What time is it?” 

“Don’t worry about that,” Tilde replied. “Go back to sleep. The mission is over, and they’re on the way back.” 

“Already?” 

Tilde shrugged. “Literally no evidence of anything. Just an old building now, nothing more.” 

“Good,” Eggsy said, and plucked at the blanket over him. 

“You can’t fall back asleep just yet, can you?” 

“I’ll be fine. You head on home; I’ve kept you all day already,” Eggsy murmured. 

Instead, Tilde moved the small monitor off of the bedside tray, and propped her phone there instead. After a moment, the opening credits of a movie started. 

“I’ve only got one of the Austin Powers movies downloaded on this, I just switched to a new phone last week. But, we did want an exciting spy mission to watch. I think this counts, don’t you?” 

She climbed back into the bed, readjusted the tray so the tiny screen faced them better, and had her eyes closed before he could answer. 

He didn’t need to though. She already knew his answer, and how grateful he was that she was there, and was clearly willing to stay with him the rest of the night. 

He didn’t know if he could manage to fall back asleep, but at the very least, he felt safe now.


	8. 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I have finally finished this chapter. 
> 
> It has been literal ages since I started this fic, and I am so sorry for the late final update. 
> 
> But! I finally was able to get around to it, and to give it an ending that felt okay. I hemmed and hawed over a long epilogue, but instead, I think this is good for now. Maybe later on, I’ll write an epilogue for a continuation. But for the minute, this will do. A short chapter, but a happy note to end things on.

“Ready?” 

He ran a hand through his finally clean hair (the shower had felt absolutely magical, and if it hadn’t been somewhat cramped, he might have spent the entire day in it) and nodded. 

Ainsley led him through the car park, away from the hospital, to a side street, where a car was waiting. “You said you wanted to head out right away, so away we go. We can take your things back home after, I figure. Merlin said he’ll hold onto them at the shop until we’re back.” 

“Not like there’s much,” Eggsy said as he climbed into the backseat of the car. “God, you know what we don’t appreciate enough? The ability to move and do things and not have it be painful. Wild, having no pain right now.” 

“I’m glad you’re feeling better,” Ainsley smiled as he joined him, letting the small duffel bag that contained Eggsy’s things drop to the floor in between his feet. “You look better too.” 

Eggsy winced. “It was getting awfully rough there, wasn’t it? Like a gross, sweaty, greasy-” 

“I meant because you look healthy and happy,” Ainsley interrupted with a chuckle. “But I figured you would be just as happy to clean up and be out of that hospital gown.” 

“You have no idea,” Eggsy replied, fussing for just a moment with his cufflinks. “If you had told me when I was younger that I’d eventually be this comfortable in a suit, I would never have believed you.” 

Ainsley nodded, then gestured to the waiting chauffeur. “Where should our friend take us? Are you still set on Greenland, or somewhere else?” 

“Mount Doom an option?” 

“I mean, we could see if the mountain they filmed in New Zealand is something we can hike up,” Ainsley pondered. “Either way, I think we need the Kingsman plane.” 

The chauffeur nodded, and they were off, trundling down the city streets. 

Eggsy pulled the box holding the pendant from his pocket, and opened it. 

He could feel Ainsley’s eyes on him, nervous. 

“Just a pendant. Can’t hurt us like this,” Eggsy soothed. “Might be able to give me bad dreams, or move about, but that’s it.” 

Ainsley nodded, but there was suspicion in his eyes, clear as the day. 

Eggsy closed the box, and slipped it back into his pocket. “So, where do you think we ought to toss it? Aside from making it a meal for a shark, of course.” 

Ainsley shrugged. “Could melt it down, maybe. Not sure if that let’s him go free or not though. And we don’t want that.” 

“No,” Eggsy murmured. “I thought this would be easier.” 

He was about to reach for the box again when the car swerved hard before continuing down the next road, and even with the seat belts they were tossed against each other from the force of the movement. 

“People are driving like idiots today,” the chauffeur muttered, clearly shaken. “I avoided the last few of them, running lights as if it was nothing. No one has working brakes today, or something.” 

His fingers found the jewelry box. “Something indeed. Say, why don’t you head back to headquarters?” 

The man started to protest, but Eggsy shook his head. “I insist, please. We’ll be fine. I have a new idea.” 

He grabbed his bag as the chauffeur parked at the side of the road, and motioned for Ainsley to follow him. “Thank you for coming to get us, truly. But you go on back, and stay safe there. Tell Merlin we’ll be in tomorrow to let him know how it all went.” 

The chauffeur nodded as Ainsley clambered out and shut the door, then drove off. 

“What on earth are we going to do now?” Ainsley asked. “Are we going to walk back, to get to the plane? Because if that’s the case, we will definitely not be able to report back tomorrow.” 

“It’ll be a walk, but one that’s worth it,” Eggsy replied, and slung the duffel bag over his shoulder, then took Ainsley’s hand in his. “I think I know the best place for him.” 

“I don’t mean to sound fussy,” Ainsley said as they walked. “But if we’re going where I think we are, then wouldn’t the car have been a better choice? Even by bus, it’s nearly 25 minutes, at least-” 

“He’s trying to stop us,” Eggsy said, and pulled the box from his pocket with his free hand. “He would have crashed the car, somehow. I’m certain of it.”

Ainsley nodded. “Our man driving would have been in danger.” 

“Exactly,” Eggsy said. “So, we walk instead. Good exercise.” 

Ainsley laughed. “True. But my legs might be too much jelly tomorrow to report in. Might only be able to spend the day in bed.” 

“Is that so? Eggsy smirked. “You’ll need a nurse then.” 

“Indeed I will.” 

“Could always tell Merlin we’re altering the date of our report,” Eggsy said. “Only one day more to wait, surely that isn’t a big deal.” 

Ainsley’s hand squeezed his tight, and he made a mental note to text Merlin later to let him know they wouldn’t be in the next day as had been planned. 

The rest of the walk was blessedly uneventful, and he figured that was because his father couldn’t suss out what his plan was. 

Even he hadn’t been sure of it, just of the bit of tech he needed for it, that Merlin had dropped off in the early hours, after Tilde had left, before anyone else had made it back to the hospital. 

The little tracker was in his other pocket, sized to fit the pendant perfectly. It measured a whole variety of things, all of which would in theory be able to tell him if his father was causing trouble from where the pendant had been left, so he could retrieve it and keep anyone else from being hurt or bothered. 

But he had a good feeling there wouldn’t be any activity to measure. 

The area near the flats was luckily empty of people as they approached a slim bit of lawn, where he set down the duffel bag. 

“I didn’t know for sure I was going to bring you here. But you made it clear that there’s nowhere else for you,” Eggsy told the pendant, and his father, as he pulled it out of the box. “You want the past. This is as close as I can get you to that. But if at any point I can tell you’re bothering people here? I’ll come back, dig this thing up, and toss it into the sea without another thought. This is a kindness, one you don’t deserve.” 

He knelt down, and used his hands to start digging up the grass and dirt, just a small portion of it, but deep as he could go. The last thing he wanted was someone digging the pendant up. 

When he was satisfied it was deep enough, he wrapped the tracker around the pendant, and dropped it into the hole. 

“There you are. Mum isn’t here, and neither am I. But the flat is still here, and you can pretend you got your way. That nothing ever changed, and no one moved on. That isn’t healthy, but I can see I’m not going to change your mind about that. Hopefully this will make you happy enough.” 

He started to move the dirt back, pausing only when Ainsley knelt down and helped. Quickly as it had been dug up, the hole was covered, and after tamping the grass down, no one would be any wiser that someone had buried anything there. 

Eggsy grabbed the duffel bag, and let Ainsley take his free hand. 

“You’re a good son,” Ainsley said as they walked back towards the main road. “I don’t know if I could have been that kind, if it was me. He tortured you, nearly killed you.”

Eggsy nodded. “True. But if I’d just dropped that thing anywhere, he might have kept trying to get at me. And hell, maybe he still will. But my hope is that this will keep him quiet. Give him what he wants, as close as we can get to it. I can’t give him the past again, no one can. But he can stay there, and play pretend if that’s what makes him happy.” 

Ainsley pressed a kiss to his forehead. “Like I said. A good son. Too good, for someone like that.” 

He could only shrug as they walked on. Maybe Ainsley was right. But then, maybe he would have been a just good enough son for the version of his father that had lived, that had come home to them. 

He would never know, but he could be a good son to Harry now. To his mum. He could be a good friend to Roxy and Tilde and Merlin and Tequila and everyone at Kingsman. He could be a good fiancé.

“Fuck!” he muttered. “That’s right.” 

He stopped short, and knelt in front of Ainsley. “Give me that for a moment, will you?” 

Ainsley looked down at the engagement ring on his ring finger. “Are you-” 

Eggsy nodded rapidly, and held out his hand. 

“Stop laughing! I’ve got to do this right. I can’t believe I almost forgot, would have been so mad at myself if I had,” he said as he took the ring from Ainsley. “Now. I have to ask you-”

“Yes,” Ainsley interrupted, grinning and giggling. 

“No, no, let me ask!” Eggsy tried and failed to bite back a laugh. “Oh, there’s no use is there. It’s too weird trying to pretend like you never found it and I’m just proposing normally.” 

Ainsley held out his left hand. “It is. But can I tell you something?” 

Eggsy nodded, and slipped the ring back onto Ainsley’s finger. 

“I’ve considered us engaged since we used the ring to try and get you back. The moment I was able to make contact with you using it, that was the moment I said yes in my head. I just needed you back with me so we could start planning things.” 

“Things?” 

“A wedding,” Ainsley answered. “A life together, and how on earth to take off the occasional time from Kingsman for all of that. But I think we’ll figure it out.” 

He let the duffel bag drop to the sidewalk and wrapped his arms around Ainsley. It was wonderfully overwhelming then, every bit of it, that while trapped he had almost given up on. 

But he was back, and healthy, and safe. And engaged to the man he loved, with the rest of their lives in front of them. 

Ainsley hugged him back, tight, then pulled him back just a bit for a kiss. “We’ve got a long walk back.” 

“Could call for a cab,” Eggsy said. “Now that no one is trying to actively kill us from beyond the grave.” 

“Could do,” Ainsley replied. “But I think I want the walk. I don’t want to rush a single moment with you. I almost didn’t get any more of them.” 

It was an uneventful walk home. Not even any rain, which they always half-expected.

And it felt good. It felt like closure, and it felt like a good sign for the future. 

Eggsy was more than ready for that. 


End file.
